My thanks to Abrams press, Emma Southon and Netgalley.
I'm always interested in those scheming Romans! They accomplished so much yet are thoroughly repugnant.
Emma Southon did a fantastic job with her research. I was actually kind of amazed at how she made this book relatable to an average Josephine like me! Also, she is funny. She has this quiet and gentle sarcasm. She had me grinning often with her quiet asides.
Unfortunately, the murders and unproved deaths eventually became tedious.
I would still recommend this book. I made it to around 60%. All the murder of slaves was awful. Kill the 1%! But then blame it on a witch or a female poisoner.

Absolutely love this book on Greek crime. This book breaks down what the Greeks considered to be a crime how it was prosecuted and what those crimes actually said about their civilization. I highly recommend this book

This was my first adventure into an Emma Southon book and I absolutely loved it! Historical books have a fine line to cross of reading like a lecture and being informative but also not reminding me of my second year history professor who Talked In All Caps and in a slow slurred mumble somehow at the same time.

This book was so well put together and really informative as well entertaining! It was a genuine pleasure to be taught by Emma Southon and I cannot wait to get my hands on more books!

I was very intrigued by this book. The cover art alone is enough to garner attention, and the topic sounded sure to keep that attention. However, I was disappointed with the execution of the book. While I think that it is well organized and offers a breadth of information that is both substantial and accessible to the less "initiated" reader, the writing itself is a bit juvenile. Many of the observations seemed very surface level and the interjections of jokes/anecdotes interrupted the flow of the book as a whole without adding much insight or levity. As an overview of famous murders in Roman history, this book pretty solid-- well cited and well compiled. That said, it is difficult to gauge who this book is meant for; it seems simultaneously too advanced for teens/younger readers and too "young" in tone for most adults.

Author has a juvenile obsession with sex, if it helped the history or the plot, it would be fine. But it just comes off as being written by a horny 14 year old, lol.